


A Rose for All Seasons

by Eyeoftheworld



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Conspiracy, Elves, F/M, Falling In Love, First Love, Freedom, Freedom Fighters, Freedom for elves, Ghosts, Goblins, Harry Potter Next Generation, Mild Sexual Content, Prison, Redemption, Runaway, SPEW | Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare, Slavery, Terrorism, True Love, Voting, cross-generational anger, emancipation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 04:09:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17134679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eyeoftheworld/pseuds/Eyeoftheworld
Summary: Rose Weasley is 19 and doesn't know what to do with her life. That all changes when an angry Elf protests against her mother in Diagon Alley for failing to free the Elves. At the same time, Rose begins to fall for Teddy Lupin, who is secretly part of the Elf Liberation cause. Together they run away to join a radical Elf liberation group.This story takes place over 20 years, across four chapters related to the seasons. Over the years the wayward Rose and Teddy encounter terrorism and conspiracy, gradually realising that the only way to free the Elves and complete their life's work is to do things the right way. All the time, Rose and Teddy fall more and more deeply in love.





	A Rose for All Seasons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ladderofyears](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladderofyears/gifts).



> This story is for my wife, on our tenth anniversary.

#### Autumn September 21st 2025

Rose’s life changed in a flurry of angry words. Sometimes your destiny changes with words of love or hope. Other times your path resets with inspiration.

For Rose Weasley, daughter of the Minister of Magic, the rest of her life was determined by words of pure anger. They weren’t even her own.

Rose was 19 and a year out of Hogwarts. She had always been mature for her age, but that didn’t mean she had left school knowing exactly what she wanted to do. Quite the opposite actually; Rose’s exceptional NEWTs in Potions, Runes and Transfiguration (and her less exceptional pass in DADA, which she felt obligated to take but had no passion for) had felt like a dog diving into a lake and emerging with a dead duck in its mouth; she had done what she was expected to by her mother, her father was proud of her, yeah yeah, yeah…. But what was she supposed to do now?

She was too young to teach at Hogwarts, which was one thing that had crossed her mind. But to be honest, it felt like Hogwarts jobs were for those who had fought in the great Wizarding war anyway, not for the “lucky” generation born into peacetime. She couldn’t bear the thought of being an Auror like so many of her family friends had become; she was nothing special at defensive magic and the whole story of dark lords left her cold. Yes, she felt guilty for that because it was such a defining part of her mum and dad’s life, but that was how she felt.

Her dad had suggested she work with him in the Weasley joke shop. She had done this in holidays, but Rose was too much her mother’s daughter. She didn’t have so much of the Weasley sense of fun, and beyond doing the accounts she wasn’t much of an advert for a joke shop.

So at 19, she had bowed to the inevitable and let others decide her fate for her because she could not decide it herself; she took a job at the ministry of Magic with her mother. The stares and comments of other workers, who all knew who she was and all assumed that she had only got her clerk’s job because of who her parents were, began on day one, just as she feared they would.  
Rose would argue that she had thrown herself wholeheartedly into the job and that would be fair to her, even though she felt that everything she did was only ever half hearted. Yet for all the decent work she did, the whispers, the rooms going silent and the colleagues who could never trust her to keep a confidence meant she was kept at a distance that she would probably have made herself if others had not made it first.  
Something was _missing._

Oh yes.

Of course, if she knew what it was she would have been seeking it by now. But so many young people in their late teens have the feeling that they aren’t doing what they should be doing, without ever being able to put their fingers on what it is they are supposed to do. 

On September 21st 2025, Rose Weasley discovered her life’s work and the love of her life in the same angry exchange.

She was shopping on Diagon Alley with her mother after work. Her integration at the Ministry had never been helped by Hermione’s insistence that they should come to work and go home together whenever her working hours allowed it. Given that no one was willing to talk to her anyway, Rose felt that the arguments at home were not worth the refusal. 

On this particular day, Hermione’s purpose was meeting Ron and some old friends at the Leaky Cauldron after some shopping. No doubt this would be the Potters, maybe the Longbottom’s. Rose got on well with Albus Potter, even with James. But Harry, Ginny and Neville, nice as they were, just weren’t on her radar. Their generation incessantly talked of nothing but the war. Rose understood this, and was sure that she would have been the same had she battled a Dark Lord. But the sense of inadequacy that her generation felt compared to the “greatest” generation of her parents was practically a psychological phenomenon. So called “peace babies” tended to avoid their parent’s get togethers at all opportunities and Rose was no different.

So it was her intention to finish shopping with her mother, make her excuses and then disapparate back to her empty bedroom and empty life.

**Traitor.**

Rose froze in the middle of the crowded street. She knew she hadn’t been hearing things, because her mother had frozen too. People impatiently nudged them aside to get passed, tutting at their audacity to stop in the middle of the flow of people.

**Filthy mudblood traitor**

Both women looked around. The racial slur banished any pretence that the phrase was not aimed at Hermione.

“I’m sorry, who is that? Why am I a traitor?” asked the Minister of magic to the crowded street.

A tomato launched itself at Hermione, hitting her on the shoulder. Another narrowly missed, before a rotten apple bounced off her trousered hip, its pulp showering Rose. Despite herself, Hermione cried out in surprise.  
An Elf stood in the street, a look of pure hatred on its face. More fruit apparated into its hand as the street began to empty at the commotion.

**Filthy SPEW Traitor**

Rose could almost see her mother’s shoulders drop. Rose knew what this was. 

SPEW. The Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare. Her mother’s pet project as a teenager, abandoned and forgotten amidst her more pressing teenage projects of defeating the Dark Lord and staying alive. Hermione had joined the ministry to further the SPEW campaign and when she had become Minister of Magic, Hermione had publically promised to work tirelessly for Elfish welfare and had even briefly opened a SPEW department at the ministry. But the Wizengamot would have none of it; The ancient families were wedded to their Elf servants and warned Hermione that a ‘muggle’ minister of magic was quite enough progress for one generation. It was difficult enough for her to win their support for the most basic of reforms, without having to convince them that Elves….

**You promised Traitor. You said you would free us. You lied. You are no different to all of the others.**

Another tomato narrowly missed as Hermione stood frozen to the spot, her mouth moving but no words coming out.

Rose realised what she was doing. She was making excuses for her mother. The Elf was hitting her in her weakest spot, but he was absolutely right because her mother had betrayed the Elves. She had been in office for 10 years already and Elves were still not free. Not one meaningful Elf protection law had been passed. Rose was making the same excuses as Hermione did, but both women knew in their hearts that the Elf’s anger was justified; Hermione had not done enough and had stopped trying.

It was like a candle suddenly lit in Rose’s heart

“I’m…. I….. Sorry….. I”

Mid-mumble, Hermione was jerked out of her trance as a man took her arm firmly and started leading her away.

“This way Minister, come on. Nothing to see here folks!”

Almost in a trance, Hermione followed the man holding her mother. It was Teddy Lupin. If the Elf had lit a candle in her heart, now that had been replaced by a deep, burning furnace as the strong Teddy led away her broken, tearful mother to the entrance of the leaky cauldron, his hair changing colour with the emotions of the scene as he offered softly spoken words of consolation to the broken minister of magic  
Teddy and Hermione staggered into the Leaky Cauldron’s bustle with Rose, trance like, following as her mind whirred.

She had never even thought about Teddy Lupin before. He was 9 years older and a regular visitor to their house when she had been a girl. He had been a little bit of a bad boy; not really bad of course, just a little rough around the edges and she had been far too young to think of boys in that way anyway. She couldn’t have seen him for at least two or three years. 

Well, she was seeing him now in a totally different light. He was the only man she had ever seen (including her dad) take charge of her mother. Teddy led Hermione to a table where a concerned Harry and Ginny Potter, along with her dad, were already standing, asking what had happened. Hermione collapsed onto a chair, her attempt to compose herself falling to pieces in fresh sobs as the gravity of the Elf’s words hit her.

The conversation that came after completely passed Rose by. Her heart was racing and it felt like her entire world had just fallen apart; as if two huge asteroids had just smashed into her worldview. 

Her first problem was that she was struggling to take her eyes off Teddy Lupin, and he was beginning to notice. She just couldn’t help it; There was just something about his look, his voice, his manner that had sent an electric pulse right through her. And if she wasn’t mistaken, he was glancing at her constantly too.

Her second epiphany was even more staggering.

_I know what I’m supposed to do with my life._

The table conversation could have gone on for ten minutes or for ten hours for all Rose knew. Hermione was back to her ministerial self now as her old wizarding war friends batted out excuse after excuse to exonerate her from the Elf’s angry words. Hermione largely kept a dignified, thoughtful silence.

Rose was silent too. Between stealing glances at Teddy (difficult when the other person is doing the same thing) and her heart racing at the possibilities of what she had to do, she barely registered until she heard her father say:  
“But you know you did everything you could have done. You have nothing to feel guilty about love”.

Almost as if it were someone else doing it, Rose interjected.

“That’s not true though is it dad?”

The whole table suddenly looked at her, except for Teddy, who just looked at his feet and grinned, an electric mischief in his eyes.

“Sorry Rose, what was that?”

“You heard me Dad. That isn’t true is it? Mum didn’t do everything she could. Did you mum? The Elf was right.”

Ron stared at her in horror. Harry and Ginny looked at each other, clearly uncomfortable. Hermione’s mouth made an O of surprise, but her eyes were pleading. Please don’t Rose. Teddy was looking at her with fire in his eyes and she held that gaze as she seized her destiny by crushing her mother with what she had to say next:

“They have every right to be furious with you mum. You got their hopes up. You promised that you would be someone who would fight for them in the Ministry”. 

Hermione was shaking her head and choking back more tears as Rose continued “I remember you saying it! But you haven’t actually done anything have you? It’s alright dad and hero Harry here telling you that you couldn’t have done anything else, but you know bloody well you could have. You lot are always talking about defeating Lord sodding Voldemort, so why don’t you go out there and explain to that Elf why you’ve done absolutely nothing to make his life any better!”

She was almost shouting how and couldn’t believe how quickly the anger had burned within her. She knew this wasn’t just about Elves; this was the anger of a generation who had grown up feeling inferior to their parents and were just starting to realise that these heroes were flawed mortals after all. 

“Rose, I….” sputtered her mother

“How dare you talk to your mother like that! What do you know about how hard its….” Mumbled an unconvincing Ron

“Now Rose, look…” began Harry Potter. 

But Rose cut them all off: “Look Harry, I mean it. I know you were the chosen one and all that, I know you saved the world, yeah yeah… But what have any of you done to change the world? Maybe some parts of your world weren’t worth saving. What is the difference between all of you and the people who let the dark lord in? You are letting the same injustices happen. 

That Elf was right; I know none of you want to admit that, but that’s the reality and you’ve all turned out no better than Fudge or Scrimgeour. You’ve just done the same things. You could have done anything and you’ve just done the same things! 

Well I won’t! I can’t defeat a dark lord but I can right some wrongs. Mum never did anything for the Elves in the end, but I WILL.”

Rose suddenly realised that the whole Leaky Cauldron was silent and staring, and it was only at that moment that she realised that she had been stood, shouting angrily in their faces. But she was too angry to be embarrassed; the candle was lit in her heart and the flame was going to burn forever.

Rose shoved her chair aside and stormed off to the bathroom to wipe away her tears.

What had she done?

Well, she had embarrassed herself in front of half of Wizarding London and all of her family and friends for a start.

But as she thought about it she realised she honestly didn’t care. Anger was part of that. But there was a much bigger feeling to it as well. 

Freedom. She knew what she was meant to do now, what would fill that big, empty void in her life. She would never again be a zombie, floating through a life made up of other people’s choices and expectations. She didn’t care if she gave up the respectable job. Sod it, she would quit tomorrow. 

Rose knew that she was going to work to free the Elves. She was going to finish what her mother had started and succeed where she failed. Rose knew that Hermione’s failure wasn’t in not getting Elf freedom; it was in failing to keep the cause in her heart.

That would never happen to Rose. She swore that there and then, staring at her reflection in a grubby bathroom mirror in the Leaky Cauldron. She would die trying and never betray the cause, never settle.  
Unlike her mother, she would leave everything on the field. She may not be able to free the elves in the end, but she knew at that moment that such failure wouldn’t ever be something she could regret, because she knew that she was going to give everything to this cause. If that wasn’t enough then she would live with that. Trying and not being good enough was always better than not trying at all. Her mother wasn’t upset because of what she had failed in, but in what she had failed to try. 

Freeing the Elves was her mission. This was her generation’s wizarding war.

The fire was burning in her like never before as she left that bathroom to the first day of the rest of her life. 

Rose strode out, only to immediately be taken by the arm and gently, yet firmly pulled into a booth seat.

Teddy Lupin released her arm and sat opposite her, his hair rapidly changing colour as if he was electrically charged in the moment. She could feel that charge. Good god, it almost leaped from his eyes to hers as she held that gaze. What on earth was happening?

“They’re still losing it over there. You did a real job on your mum Rose, I’ve never seen the minister of Magic speechless before”

Anger flared in Rose momentarily. Was he really going to chastise her for upsetting….

He held his hand up to stop her, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“I think what you said was bloody brilliant. Lots of others would think the same. You said what needed to be said Rose. They need to hear it”.

His eyes were changing colour with his hair in rapid succession, and yet they were all she could look at.

_If he tries to kiss me right now I won’t be able to stop myself_

_I want him to kiss me. Right now_

Did Teddy know what she was thinking? Something in his eyes told her he did. He felt almost imperceptibly closer but made no move. Rose tried to break the spell and concentrate on what he was saying.

“I mean it Teddy. I don’t care about how mum feels about it, it’s not about them anymore. They have betrayed themselves already. I’m going to work my whole life to free the Elves. This isn’t about them, it’s about me”

“Us” said Teddy, as he took both her hands in his before she even realised he was reaching for her. The shudder went up both arms and straight down her torso. Rose was embarrassed to think about where in her body that electricity seemed to find its home.

“Teddy…. I….”

“Its ok Rose. I believe in you”.

Rose was lost to him. She fought to regain her composure. Her voice as she spoke was barely a whisper, slow and charged with the tension of the moment. The words were almost meaningless next to the words between them that were unspoken as he leaned in finally, finally and kissed her; just briefly, a tentative, stolen kiss that swallowed her entire world.

After an eternity, they parted. What to say?

“Thing is….. I don’t even know where to start” she whispered, her mind a long way from anything she might be saying as their faces remained inches apart.

Teddy leaned into her ear, almost nibbling: “I think I can help you with that as well Rose. I know some…. People” he whispered, his sweet break on her cheek. “People who believe the same way we do. I’m already in an…. Organisation. I would love you to meet them. With us together, RELF could really do it Rose. We could free the Elves… _together”_

With that, Rose turned her head back to him and melted, her mouth eagerly, passionately finding his as the twin candles in her heart burned brightly.

#### Winter December 21st 2030

Rose cringed in anticipation of the noise, and when it came it was every bit as bad as she had braced herself for.

CLANG. CLINK.

The sound of a prison door slamming shut behind her, the Minister of Magic’s daughter on the wrong side of it. Charms and wards were going up straight afterwards to prevent wandless magic.  
Her eyes adjusted to the dark as she took in her surroundings. The cell was actually quite large, clearly not built for just one person and not meant for someone to sleep in. There was no furniture, just a bench by the wall. This was just a holding cell. She would be moved somewhere else later. Azkaban seemed most likely.

There was also someone else in here with her. Sat in a shadowy corner of the room, features not clear beyond their relatively small size.  
Was it a child? 

Did it matter? Not really. Rose wasn’t afraid of anyone anymore, and if she was in a holding cell it was only to be expected that she wouldn’t be alone. She just hoped whoever it was didn’t feel like a conversation. She couldn’t bare it. The only person she wanted to speak to was Teddy, and he was clearly being held somewhere else.

But more than anything else, she needed someone to tell her that it was all ok. That no one had got hurt.

_Oh God please let no one have been in that building. It will be a miracle if we all got out. What if someone innocent was in there? How could there not have been?_

What had happened?

A stupid question. She knew the answer already. She had known in the back of her mind what kind of people she was really associating with in the RELF. She and Teddy both ignored it, focused on the lighter stuff, kidded themselves that the extremists could be tamed.

How could they be so stupid? How was she so naive?

And now she was waiting to see if she had been an accessory to murder.

_Oh God, what have I done?_

She sat on the bench and let out a sigh, as light as she could so as not to encourage conversation with her cellmate. She sat back and thought about what had got her here.  
After the argument at the Leaky Cauldron, she and Teddy had gone off together. Rose would have said that that sounded more dramatic than it was, that she had merely gone to his house and never returned home. At 19 it didn’t matter to her that from her parent’s perspective she was a runaway; it didn’t matter to her that her mother was frantic when she never again showed up for work; it didn’t matter that her parents had to (illegally) divert Aurors from their cases just to find out where she was. 

For Rose, she was merely coming out of a cocoon and slipping effortlessly into a new life. Like never going home again and completely abandoning your former life was something people did as freely as they changed clothes.  
She was with Teddy, and that was all that mattered. 

It felt like they had known each other for years. He was the first person to see her worth as Rose, rather than as Rose Weasley, the daughter of the Minister of magic and a war hero. Teddy was the first person she ever met who just saw Rose, without seeing her parents first. Maybe it was because he was the only person close to her age she knew who didn’t have parents. 

For Teddy it was the same. Rose never once looked at him as a bad boy tearaway; or even worse, as a war orphan to be pitied. She never once freaked out at his Metamorhmagus powers, which unlike his mother he found difficult to control. For Rose, Teddy was just Teddy; he knew she loved him unconditionally from that Leaky Cauldron meeting onwards and nothing any of their parents had ever done made any difference to that. This was important to both of them.

So she had gone back to his house with him and they had made love, her for the first time. She was surprised by how hungry she was for him, as if by sheer force of will she could force their bodies to physically merge, as if mere skin to skin was not enough contact for either of them. He was gentle and passionate and she knew she had met the man she would spend the rest of her life with. 

Laying in bed with him afterwards, she was angry at herself as her thoughts drifted to her mother; how Hermione and Ron had taken seven years to realise they loved each other.

_I am not my mother. I love this boy and I don’t need seven minutes to be sure of it, let alone seven years._

And she never thought about it again. 

In fact, beyond a couple of snatched conversations on (of all things) the muggle phone, she had not spoken to either of her parents nor their friends in the last five years. That wasn’t exactly a conscious decision; it was just how things had gone. She had been ‘busy’, lost in her new life.

Her new life was with the Radical Elf Liberation Front. RELF for short.

Rose would have told you that she was part of the Elf Liberation movement. Anyone on the outside of the RELF would have told you that she was a member of a terrorist organisation. It was just starting to dawn on Rose, as she sat in a cold, dark cell encased in defensive magic, that for all she had been kidding herself over the last five years, ‘terrorist’ was exactly what RELF was. It was certainly what her fellow RELFers were.  
Was she a terrorist?

_Yes I am. After tonight, that is exactly what I am._

She breathed in the cold air, letting out a gasping sigh of “what have I done?”

“Nothing”.

Rose jerked out of her thoughts. After however many minutes it had been of silent thought, the intrusion of this throaty, rasping speech in her cell felt utterly shocking. Someone had spoken aloud, and for some reason it seemed to outrage her every sense of self. 

Should she respond? Clearly it was her cellmate. What did he or she mean? Did she really want to get into conversation?

Thinking it better to not make enemies in a two-person cell, Rose responded. “I’m sorry?”

“You did nothing” said the same raspy voice.

Not human thought Hermione. What is it?

“What do you mean I did nothing? What do you know of what I’ve done? Who are you?”

“Nobody died. Montague was the one who set the bomb. He disapparated away just after it went off. He will be scarred and will lose an arm, but he will live. He is in a hospital cell at St Mungos right now.  
The Museum staff all had the night off and the guards were asleep at the entrance. Nobody died. You got away with it”.

Rose looked at the figure in the corner in awe. 

“How do you know this?”

“We talk. We know”.

Rose shuffled sideways on the bench closer to the creature so that it came into sight.

_Goblin_ she realised.

“Who told you this?” she asked.

“We talk. We know”.

Rose hardly dared to believe the Goblin. Could they have been so lucky? When the explosion happened she was already out of the building. Teddy was just leaving and had been seen. Both of them had been arrested by apparating aurors and neither could speak from shock. The explosion had been as much a surprise to them as to anyone else.

_No Rose, that’s a lie. You know you are telling yourself a lie there. You always knew something like this was going to happen eventually. Don’t kid yourself that you didn’t know what kind of people you were working with._

At first RELF had been fun. A bunch of free spirits, a bit like Muggles might call “hippies”, all living together and talking nothing but radical politics and Elf Liberation. They were living out of each other’s pockets, sometimes all sleeping in the same room, sharing food, sharing warmth. You could even hear other couples making love in the room with you at night, although Teddy would never go in for that. 

Teddy was more into it even that Rose was, but both of them kept a degree of distance. Teddy may have seemed the bad boy, but at heart he was sensible; Rose would have said he was ‘real’. He was into the radical stuff but drew the line at the free love commune rubbish that the others felt went with that. It was one of the things she loved about him; she could trust him to know where the line was even when she lost it.

Was RELF terrorist group? Yes; on reflection Rose could probably say it was. But it had all seemed so innocent. Where politicians like her mother had failed to put Elf emancipation on the agenda, RELF would force the conversation and take up front pages of the Daily Prophet with their antics.

As a Weasley, it all came so naturally to her. She had enough of her father and uncles in her to have a real sense of fun and mischief; for all she was her mother’s daughter, she had at least some Weasley instinct for a prank and was aided in this by her uncle George, the country’s foremost joke shop proprietor and the only member of her family she kept in secret contact with.

So it had been that RELF had spent 5 years stealing the headlines with huge set pieces. There had been the day when the Ministry of Magic entrance had been hexed to deny entrance to anyone but Elves. There had been the banquet at the Guild of Ancient families, where the wine had been switched with polyjuice containing elf hair; the heads of all the ancient wizarding families spent several hours looking just like elves in full view of the Daily Prophet journalists. 

Then there had been their piece de resistance; the fireworks at the Wizarding World Cup final. Rose herself had worked the magic; was quite proud of herself actually although she had needed the combined powers of Teddy and a couple of others. She fired fireworks into the sky in green and black directly over the stadium. For several minutes there were gasps of anguish because it looked exactly like the Dark Mark and hundreds of middle aged fans recalled the famous cup final of the mid 1990’s that saw the return of the Death Eaters. But as the mark developed, it uncovered not the skull, but the familiar face of Dobby, the martyred spiritual founder of the Elf liberation movement.  
Rose had been surprised by the negative reaction to this trick, as hundreds of people left early sobbing. Clearly her generation would never quite get what the dark mark meant to those who lived through those times, and that just made her feel angrier at the failure of her parent’s generation to change things for the better. The joke had maybe not hit the right note, but it had certainly put the RELF in the papers.

And not just the RELF either. Other groups had emerged that competed for headlines. The NELF (National Elf Liberation Front) were their direct rivals, but there were the EFA (Elf Freedom Association), and even the Radical Energised Society for the Protection of Elf Welfare (known, oddly, as the RE-SPEWers). These groups had gotten more and more radical in competition with them, to the point where both Rose and Teddy were starting to despair that the message was getting lost in the race for headlines. 

For instance, the RE-SPEWers had broken a real taboo by going for Hogwarts, using an inside man to transfigure all the portraits of headmasters into Elves. It was a great trick and made headlines for a week, but both Rose and Teddy had always felt Hogwarts was out of bounds. To their increasing worry, some of the other RELF members did not agree.

Then the NELF had gone international. Somehow they had stolen a pyramid from Egypt and held it ransom for the liberation of all Elves in the country. Of course, the Egyptian ministry of magic had not given in to this and the result was that the pyramid was never returned. The Egyptian ministry had to work with all of the other ministries to obliviate all muggles who had ever even heard of this pyramid so no one would miss it. Thankfully it was a fairly minor one and only a few million people really knew it existed, but it was still the biggest mass muggle obliviation in history. In one go, a pyramid that has been studied for centuries disappeared from Muggle history as if it never existed.

Rose had had serious misgivings then. This wasn’t what she and Teddy had signed up for. This wasn’t the message. The point was to bring Elf emancipation into the public consciousness, not to blackmail or terrorise. At the RELF council, she and Teddy had spoken up. They urged the others to ignore what the NELFers and RE-SPEWers were doing and get back to basics. Peaceful protest. Even the dark mark prank had gone too far and they all knew it.  
Looking back, Rose should have realised that she and Teddy had lost the rest of them then. 

Instead, she kidded herself that they had agreed with her. She let herself believe that her and Teddy’s arguments had won the day. When the council voted to hit the National Wizarding Museum with a prank, she was delighted.  
She obtained the materials from Uncle George. They were going in at night to set up, and the next morning, just as the museum was hitting peak time, every exhibit would light up with “WHAT ABOUT THE ELVES?”  
It was a classic Weasley RELF prank. Right back to their best. 

But Rose now understood that this was never the mission for some of the others. Montague, Bowman, De Percy… they were planning something else. They had chosen to do a real hit and plant a bomb. They weren’t just using the exhibits to send a message about the exclusion of Elves from the history of magic; they were going to blow the exhibits up.

And they had.

Rose was outside already when it happened. Teddy was just leaving; 30 seconds later and he would have been killed.

_My God. They knew that. The other RELFers had to have known that._

They had known Teddy was still supposed to be in there and they did it anyway. In fact, Rose probably would have been expected to still be in there too. How could they have been so irresponsible? Did they not care whether she and Teddy were….

“Don’t be so naive. That was the plan all along” said the rasping voice of the Goblin.

_Can he hear my thoughts?_

“Humans are so easy to follow. How do you think we Goblins are able to keep one step ahead so much? If there weren’t so many of you we would be ruling this world”.

“Ok” said Rose. “If you know so much, tell me: what was the real plan?”

“To kill you and your boyfriend. The whole point was to blow the thing up with you inside it and make it look like you had been killed by your own bomb. What could be better? The Minister of Magic’s daughter, a war hero’s orphan, killed in an act of terrorism for the Elves? What could do a better job of shaming the ministry? What could do the radical cause more good than to make Martyrs of you both?”

_Oh my god._

The truth of what the Goblin was saying sank deep within her. He was right of course. That had been the plan. Their RELF comrades had set them up. They had tried to murder her and Teddy. She could barely ask the next question:

“How do you… How can you be…..”

“We talk. We know” rasped the Goblin.

Rose felt dizzy. Even sitting on the bench suddenly felt like too little support. She let her body slide forwards onto dusty ground as she tried to choke back the angry sobs that were coming.

What had she done? What had she spent the last five years on?

At that moment, she could hear the charms being withdrawn and then the mechanical sound of the door being unlocked. Light came into the room and a familiar figure was pushed towards where she was sitting on the floor, collapsing into her arms. It was Teddy, and he had clearly taken a beating.

“FIVE MINUTES!” Growled the guard as the door slammed shut and the charms returned. She grasped her man tightly and kissed him gently on his bruised face.

“Oh god Teddy, what have they done to you?”

“No time for that Rose. Listen to me. It’s ok, no one was killed. But it was a set up. De Percy and Montague must have planned it all along. They meant for us to be killed and to take the blame!”

“I know Ted. I know. I can’t believe it. But at the same time, I feel like I’ve always known this was what was going to happen”.

“Rose, what are we going to do?”

“Not what you’ve been wasting your time on, that’s for sure” came the rasping Goblin voice as the small, well dressed creature stepped forward into the light. 

_He looks like he works in Gringots. A banker. Is he here for stealing?_

The Goblin looked at her and gave a small nod of the head, as if agreeing that her thoughts were correct.

“How do you know what we’ve been doing?” demanded Teddy, who was angry at himself for not having realised they were not alone.

“We talk. We know things”.

Teddy looked questioningly at Rose, who merely shrugged.

“You humans are all the same. Everything good you try to do has to be about yourselves”.

“Now hold on a minute…” Teddy tried to protest

“No. Everything is about yourselves. Always. 

Why Elves? Why not Centaurs? Or Goblins? Or Giants?

Because Elves are what you wizards and witches see every day. You have directly enslaved them, they work for you in rags and make you feel bad about it, so you campaign for them. Centaurs have no legal rights either but they conveniently live in the forests. Giants live in the mountains. You can do whatever you want to them and never prick your consciences because they don’t live in your houses with you.  
Like I said, it’s all about yourselves”.

Rose and Teddy looked at each other. The Goblin’s words were like a slap in the face. They had never even considered this before. 

Teddy tried to offer a token protest; “But Centaurs are fine as they are. They don’t….”

“HOW DO YOU KNOW? 

How do you know what Centaurs want, when you have never had the decency to even consider them as equals? Your ministry still designates centaurs as creatures of ‘near human intelligence’. 

You treat Goblins the same. You assume we are happy with our lot, serving you in banks and private vaults. But why can’t Goblins study at Hogwarts? Or have any state education at all? I could disapparate out of here any time I want. We Goblins can be so much more powerful than Wizards. But the likes of you has never even thought about us having equal rights!

Let me ask you this” He rasped on: “How many Elves are members of your organisation?”

Rose felt a deep shame descending on her. 

_This is how my mother felt 5 years ago. I’ve done the same thing. I have been no better. I have lived with my human privilege and not done anything to help, to really help at all._

Teddy was the one who answered. The sense of defeat was in his voice. “None. There are no elves in RELF. There never has been. To be honest, we’ve barely spoken to any Elves. I don’t even know why. This Goblin is right Rose. We’ve lived a lie for the last five years. How could we be so stupid? What are we going to do now?”

There was silence in the cell for a moment. Rose had no answer.

“Goblins don’t have equal rights, but we are not enslaved. Many centuries ago we were, but when we won our freedom it wasn’t through pranks or violence. We used peaceful means and won the argument.

You”- he was pointing at Rose- “The minister’s daughter. Who could have been better to win an argument and bring people around to your cause? 

You have two parents. Instead of using your advantages as the daughter of the Minister of Magic, you instead decided to use your connections to a joke shop. And you were wondering why you ended up in this cell?”

Rose looked straight at the Goblin “but my mother… if she couldn’t…”

“You are not your mother”, replied the Goblin.

Teddy looked energised. It was one of the things she loved the most about him; his ability to turn defeat into hope so quickly.

“Rose, he is right. It wasn’t that your mother couldn’t do anything. It was that she didn’t. That was always the problem. It was you saying that that brought us together five years ago. You’re the daughter of the Minister of Magic and you have nothing to lose. Our Goblin friend is right; we were never going to do this by pranks. We need to be on the inside. We need to win over the big wizarding families in the Wizengamot. All we have done so far is push them away. We have to do this the right way.”

“Ted, what are you suggesting?” asked Rose, suspicion in her voice as she realised she knew what was coming.

“You have to get in touch with your mother. Get a job in the ministry again and work hard. Get a place in the Wizengamot and bring the cause to them that way. And this time it can’t just be the Elves. We have to go for the freedom of all magical creatures”

Rose looked at him incredulously. Not one word of what he had said made any sense. She couldn’t take a job with her mother again. He knew she couldn’t even talk to her mother again. Besides, both of them would be going to Azkaban very soon. Freeing all magical creatures? That was like landing on the moon.

_Muggles did that. They ended slavery years ago. What’s your excuse Rose?_

“Ted, even if we could do all of that… both of us were seen. We’re going to prison for what happened tonight. I could never work for the ministry after that”.

“No Rose. I was seen coming out. Not you. You were just a bystander”

“Teddy no….” 

But just then, the charms came down and the door opened. Rose looked up at the figure in the doorway. It was the Head of Aurors, in full uniform. It was Harry Potter. Uncle Harry. He walked into the room and looked at the two of them, still embraced. The Goblin was gone. He must have disapparated as soon as the charms went away.

“Rose….” Said Harry. “What have you done Rose? And Teddy?”

Neither wanted to say anything. Finally Rose broke the silence with the only thing worth saying. “Was anyone hurt?”

“No. One of your group is in St Mungo’s and will recover. Veritaserum has led to some quite interesting confessions. You two are very lucky to be alive.”

Harry came into the cell and kneeled down on the floor in front of them, his voice low. He did not want what came next to be overheard. Rose heart sank because she knew what it would be.

“Rose… your mother asked me to come. To get you out. I promised her I would. She misses you”.

“And my father?”

“Him most of all Rose. Him most of all”.

Rose looked away. She would not cry in front of Uncle Harry. Hero Harry. He represented everything she had been rebelling against. It would just be so much easier to hate him if he wasn’t such a nice guy when he was actually in front of you.

“Harry, I was there. It wasn’t us who blew up the museum, that wasn’t the plan. You know that don’t you?” Harry nodded. “But we are guilty because we were idiots and that allowed it to happen. You know that as well don’t you?” Harry gave a barely perceptible nod.

Harry sighed, choosing his next words carefully. Harry Potter had delivered a fair few meaningful speeches in his time and he knew that the way he said the next few words would have a huge impact on Rose’s destiny. He had to get this right. And he did.

“Rose, you weren’t seen in the building. You were a bystander. You were arrested because you were there, but there doesn’t have to be anything to tie you to what happened tonight. If you want, you can be free to go with a clean record. I can make that happen for you. 

Your mother wants me to make that happen for you. Not because you are her daughter. But because if you go to Azkaban the Elves will never be free. 

Hermione believes you are the only one who can free them. But not if you take the blame for what the extremists did tonight. Your mother wants you back in the ministry and working on Elf liberation there. What do you say?”  
Rose listened to his words. She found that all she could say as her voice started to break with sobs was “why just the Elves? Why not the centaurs or Goblins?”

Bless Harry. He didn’t laugh. He never once broke his gaze nor his composure. He just nodded his head and said “why not indeed?”

_He is taking me seriously thought Rose._

Teddy was the next to speak. “Rose, you’ve got to do this. You know that. We’ve been wrong all these years. This is the way we can do it. This is the way you can do it”.

Rose jerked up suddenly. “But what about you?

Harry, what about Teddy? Please Harry!” she begged, because she already knew the answer.

Harry broke her gaze this time, looked down and sighed. The silence weighed in the air.

“I’m…. sorry Teddy”.

Teddy Lupin swallowed and nodded. Her ever noble Teddy. An orphan again. No influential parents to bail him out. The orphan would be to blame again. He accepted that.

“I understand Harry”.

“You were seen coming out of the building. Debris is on your coat. Your name is known as an associate of Peter Montague and RELF. I can’t do anything other than argue in court that you were set up. But the prank you planned to do will be enough for prison time. I’m sorry Teddy. I can get Rose out but I can’t do any more for you”. Harry looked genuinely pained delivering the words and Teddy appreciated that. 

“I understand Harry. Thank you.”

He turned to Rose now.

“Rose… you are the love of my life. But you’ve got to go”

“NO! NO Teddy” she screamed as Harry started to take her gently by the arm and lift her from the floor.

“Rose, yes. I’ve got to go away for a while, do a little time”

Rose was screaming as Harry started to lead her away.

“NO!”

“Yes Rose. You know it has to be. It doesn’t matter. No dementors in Azkaban at least. By the time I’m out, you’ll have worked wonders at the Ministry. You’ll be well into the project. Our project. You know you have to do this Rose. This was never about me, it was always meant to be you”

“No….”

“I’m going down anyway. If you don’t do this, everything we have done is for nothing and we’re just another generation that failed”.

How did he do this? He was 9 years older than her. Maybe at 33, he had better perspective. But still, she had no idea how he could hold it together like this.

“Rose. Please. Wait for me”.

Rose screamed as the sobs burst out. She took one last look at her soulmate on the floor of a cell as she let Uncle Harry lead her out of the room.

“Teddy, I love you and I’ll wait for you forever”.

The door shut. The charms went up. 

Teddy Lupin looked at the cold, empty cell.

And smiled.

#### Spring March 21st 2040

The alarm blared out. Rose had always felt that an alarm in this of all places was bizarre. The shocking, cutting noise it made never seemed to fit the perfectly, shiny tiled corridors.

Yet today, it seemed like the most natural sound in the world. It fitted the gravity of the occasion perfectly. For the first time in her career, Rose didn’t feel a shudder as that noise echoed through the corridors and chambers. Today it felt right.

Rose was in one of the corridors of the Ministry of Magic. She was about to enter the Wizengamot chamber with her mother for a vote that would be a defining point of both of their lives. The alarm was their signal to enter, that the monumental session was about to begin.

_Today will either be the end. Or the end of the beginning thought Rose._

Rose reached out for her mother’s hand. At 61, Hermione Grainger was one of the longest serving Ministers of Magic in history. She had been re-elected so many times that the Wizengamot had discussed introducing term limits, but after 30 years of effective and fair management of the wizarding world, not one witch or wizard was prepared to introduce such a law that might put her out of office. Hermione had just last month won a 7th five year term in office, which had convinced them both that now was the time to strike, while the Minister’s authority was indisputable.

Hermione took her daughter’s hand. She looked at Rose and smiled at her. A smile of pride beyond anything she could have imagined. Today was unlikely to be the end of the road, but Rose had done something no one else could have done; not even her.

Rose had managed to get a vote in the Wizengamot on freedom and equality for all magical creatures.

It seemed ridiculous to even think the words. Yet Rose, her Rose had done it. Today the Wizengamot would vote on whether to emancipate and give equal rights to all magical creatures. If the motion was passed, not only would Elf slavery be abolished; all creatures capable of casting spells would have equal legal rights with witches and wizards. Elves would be able to vote in Minister of magic elections. Goblins would have the right to go to Hogwarts, or set up their own schools if they wanted to. Even Giants would be brought into society.

It was breathtaking.

Of course, the motion would be defeated today. That wasn’t even the point. There was no way the older magical families would be willing to pass this first time. They were too reliant on slaves for their own comfort. 

But the fact that it was being voted on at all was an unbelievable achievement. It would be voted down today, but Rose would just put it forward again in a couple of years; and then a couple of years after that. They had already won the argument. Winning the vote would be just a matter of time. Hermione just hoped she would live to see it.

The significance of this day and all the steps that led to it were loaded in the look the two women gave each other in front of the chamber door. In the end, it was Rose who moved first, her hand holding her mothers, gently pulling her through the door.

As she did so, Rose reflected on the last decade; on how she had got here.

Teddy had got four years in Azkaban for terrorism. Rose in the meantime had taken a job in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department; ironically the exact job her grandfather had once held. Back on speaking terms with her mother, Hermione had warned Rose to concentrate on the job and working her way up the ranks. She had also urged Rose not to spoil her standing in the ministry by visiting Teddy in Azkaban.  
Rose ignored both pieces of advice.

She loved Teddy with all her heart. In the four years he was away, she never once missed a monthly visit. There were no dementors now, so as a prison it wasn’t all that bad. She was able to spend at least some time alone with Teddy and they had both been very insistent that the visits be about them, not just Rose telling him the latest news of the cause.

When he was released six years ago, her parents and grandparents had been adamant that she should keep her distance for the sake of her ministry career. She was having none of it. They moved in together immediately and soon found a natural rhythm to their relationship. Without being part of an underground terrorist group or being separated by prison bars for the first time in their relationship, they were at last free to settle down and be a proper couple. It had been wonderful.

Teddy was not willing to let the grass grow under his feet though. He tried several jobs, including hairdressing before being recruited off the books by the Daily Prophet. His Metamorphagus powers were very attractive to them and they wanted him to be an investigative reporter akin to Rita Skeeter. 

Teddy refused at first; he had morals. But he soon found that working freelance for them could work well. Instead of spying on teenagers as Rita had, Teddy was able to use his shape shifting to uncover evidence of corruption and shady dealing within the ministry, within Gringot’s, even within the Aurors office. Teddy chose the people he would pursue and the scoops he would write up. He took pride in exposing the evils of those with power.

This had been invaluable over the last six years and todays vote would never have happened without Teddy. There were at least 15 people in that Wizengamot today who only accepted the vote happening at all because their various indiscretions had been overheard by a disguised Teddy Lupin, and their desire to keep their family reputation outweighed their need for Elf slaves.

As for herself, Rose quickly understood that her mother was wrong. Keeping her head down and doing a good job was not the way to win freedom for magical creatures; what she needed was to rise up the ranks quickly, earn a place in the Wizengamot and bring the cause to the public attention. That would not happen through her being low profile.

So immediately after taking her job in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, Rose very publically declared all of her intentions through an interview with the Daily Prophet. Were Ministry old timers appalled at her ambition and forwardness? Oh yes. It put the wind up a lot of people. But Rose was protected by the Minister of Magic herself, and by declaring her intention to free all Elves she could start drawing others to the cause.

On the way in to the Wizengamot chamber there is a large lobby area in which it is permitted for witches and wizards to come and ‘lobby’ members of the Wizengamot on issues they cared about. This took place every Wednesday.  
Rose never missed a single one. Over time, her presence in the lobby drew others to the cause. Before Teddy had even come out of Azkaban, there was a group of around 15 people every Wednesday, all demanding Elf freedom. Rose’s little lobby group became affectionately known as “Dobbyists”, a name that stuck (and was, Rose reflected, far better than RELF).

With Teddy out of prison, he was able to lead the Dobbyists in ways that Rose, for political reasons, could not. He could lead them on peaceful marches outside the ministry of magic, working with members from the Elf and Goblin community. His work for the Daily Prophet led to them allowing him to publish the first ever print interview with an Elf, Winky, a leading Elf member of the Dobbyists who had been freed over four decades ago.

The Peaceful protests and marches of the Dobbyists became weekly news. The Quibbler quickly took up the cause and became the official paper of Magical Creature Emancipation. Dobbyist groups appeared all over the UK, with a group even thriving among the seniors at Hogwarts.

Next up was to convince important families to come on board. The Weasley’s, at Hermione’s insistence had never kept any Elves. The first easy win was the Potters, who freed their Elf Kreature. In fairness, Kreature had never really lived as a slave and would never leave Grimmauld place in any case, but as an opening gesture it was welcome.

Next came the Scamangers; Luna Scamanger and her son Lorkan both made a wonderful public show of releasing all Elves who worked for them, then rehiring the ones who wanted to stay on proper wages.

Hogwarts was another easy win; Headteacher Longbottom happily freed all their kitchen elves and rehired the ones who wanted to stay on wages.

By 2036 the Dobbyist group were filling the Ministry Lobby weekly; families who were allies had freed their elves and both Rose and Teddy were household names. Rose, having long ago become a manager in the muggle department, was shifted to Magical Creatures. On the back of her work on emancipation she was dubbed “Wilberforce” (a muggle reference only her mother and Harry Potter actually got) and was comfortably elected to a seat in the Wizengamot; one of the youngest witches ever to win a seat. She was swiftly made Minister for Magical Creatures and changed the name to Minister for Magical Others.

From her position as MMO, she had started introducing simple votes in the Wizengamot. Little things that most of the members did not notice but were intended to make it much harder to enslave Elves. Three years ago she had proposed an inheritance law change. Hidden in the small print had been a provision that banned the passing of living creatures in a will. The Wizengamot had not read it properly and voted for it. In one fell swoop, Elves whose owners died were now to be freed.

Then last year she had introduced a law that made it illegal for anybody to withhold clothes to any creature that requested them. The pro-slavers had only realised in the nick of time what she was getting at and voted it down.  
And then the first big family had fallen. The Black family, now called Le Noir after the French cousins who had taken over the family property in the UK (not, of course, Grimmauld place) had declared their support for the cause and freed their Elves. The effect was seismic; the pro slavers had been rocked by the first big ancient family to abandon them.

Rose remembered her trip to Malfoy Manor in search of an even bigger fish. Draco Malfoy, the lonely widower who remained head of the Malfoy clan had agreed to see her and the interview had gone… ok. She had expected to be thrown out, humiliated. She knew what Draco was like, even if Scorpius was one of her oldest friends and supported her. And the Malfoys had an army of Elves looking after their properties. But Draco had been non-committal; he certainly had not agreed to anything, but neither had he laughed at her. She had left confused.

When Hermione had won another election at the age of 61, for the first time the Minister had felt confident to abandon neutrality and declare her outright support for Elf freedom. Rose had proposed a vote, Hermione had backed it and reverence in the chamber for her, along with fear that ‘unfortunate’ stories about some of the other members might be revealed by Teddy had meant the Wizengamot had agreed to hold the debate.

And here it was.

The chamber never failed to impress Rose as she walked into it. Dark, shiny and imposing, the sight of all of the elected members, wearing either black or red robes sent a tingle down her spine.

It was all about how close the defeat was. A heavy defeat and it might be years before she could bring the vote again. If it was a close defeat, then she could bring a vote again pretty soon and victory would be in sight.  
She took her place at the stand and the chamber fell silent. Rose had begged her mother to lead the debate, to use her gravitas. But the Minister was not supposed to do that and Hermione insisted that it was Rose’s cause now.  
Rose cleared her throat and stared at the most important wizards in the country.

“Witches and Wizards of the Wizengamot. We gather here for an historic debate. At stake, is the cause of right. Today we vote on the full freedom and equality of all Magical others. Today we choose whether we bring the magical world into the modern world. The Muggle UK abolished legal slavery 200 years ago. It is time we witches and wizards proved that we are not inferior to Muggles when it comes to deciding right from wrong”….

Rose spoke for around an hour. It was a superb speech. It encapsulated every bit of her passion and energy. Everything she had put into the Elf freedom cause over the last 15 years boomed through her oratory and she held the chamber in an awed silence. Teddy Lupin, banned as a criminal from entering the Ministry, watched with a different face from the gallery and was proud of her.

Harry Potter, Luna Scamanger and even Charlie Weasley all spoke, representing the abolitionist old families. They did brilliantly. 

But Rose was concerned. This was going too well. Her speech had been even better than she had hoped. She had literally given it everything she had. But she expected to lose this vote; they were testing the waters here. She wasn’t sure she could manage a performance that good again in the future when a vote might be winnable. Would the others be able or willing to speak as well again in the future?

Next came the pro- Slavery families. Most impressive was Brandon Lestrange. No matter how many of that family died in the wizarding wars, there always seemed to be more of them and they had soon retaken their place as one of the key ancient families. Lestrange was just as passionate in outlining the arguments for his side. For why Centaurs and Goblins could never be seen as sentient in the same way as Wizards; how equality would threaten the very fabric of the wizarding world.

A couple of other ancient families spoke their agreement with Lestrange. But Rose was hopeful. A couple she expected opposition from had so far remained silent.

Then Draco Malfoy stood.

Rose swallowed. What Draco said would make all the difference. If his opposition was lukewarm, this had a chance of passing within the next ten years, perhaps. If he was as vehemently opposed as Lestrange, it might not be in her lifetime, let alone her mother’s.

Then Draco did something nobody expected. Something so utterly shocking that most of a Wizengamot called out, even gasped in shock. One shouted so angrily from the gallery that he was removed; Rose realised later that it had been Teddy.

He pulled back the sleeve of his robe and presented his Dark Mark to the chamber.

This simply wasn’t done. The Death Eater families never, ever mentioned that part of their past. Showing this tattoo was an enormous insult. What was he playing at?

“Witches and Wizards of the Wizengamot… There is a memory that burns within me. It is a memory that to this day tears me apart. 

Yes, I was a Death Eater, (gasps) and at one point I was even proud of it (angry shouts)”.

“But I was one of many. Many of the members of this chamber representing older families have this same tattoo. It is not the tattoo that shames me.

‘In the battle of Hogwarts, I took no part. I sat there and waited for Voldemort to win. By then, I did not want him to but I did not have the courage of some of my classmates to fight him. In my heart I no longer sought the dark but I was too cowardly to join the light.

‘When Voldemort arrived, he asked for his supporters to come over to him. My father and mother were already stood by his side and urged me to cross the courtyard to them. 

‘I wanted to stay. For the first time, I was with friends. I was on the right side of history. I was with the brave children battling for Hogwarts and for Freedom and I wanted to have the courage to say no to the Dark Lord, to say that I wanted to fight and die for what I knew was right.

‘But, Witches and Wizards, I didn’t have the courage. My family told me to come over, the Dark Lord told me to come over, and I lost my resolve. I took the steps across the courtyard to the dark side. They were the heaviest steps I had ever taken. Every single step felt utterly wrong. But I did it and my family fled soon afterwards.

‘I have regretted crossing that courtyard every single day of my life since. I cannot look my son in the eye because I crossed that courtyard. I cannot forget this tattoo because I crossed that courtyard. I will never be remembered as a hero of the war, because I crossed that courtyard while brave classmates stood their ground. There has been no redemption for me.

‘But maybe there is redemption. Maybe it is never too late to do the right thing. I cannot change what I did then, but I can choose what I do now. I can be on the right side of history for a change”.  
Rose couldn’t breathe. But Draco went on.

“That is why, Witches and Wizards, I have instructed all of Malfoy Manor’s Elves to be given clothes tonight. The Malfoy family will no longer endorse slavery and no being will ever be enslaved by my family again. And that is why I intend to wholeheartedly support Minister Weasley’s motion today. I urge all my friends and allies, and all of the ancient families to do the right thing and to follow me in standing in the right place in the courtyard today.  
Thank you”.

There was a few seconds of silence before the chamber exploded. There were angry words from some of the members, but Draco was being hugged by others. Rose could see Scorpius Malfoy up in the gallery, openly weeping, Albus Potter barely holding it together beside him.

No one else wanted to speak so Hermione called the vote.

_Moment of truth_ thought Rose. _How close is it?_

“All those in favour of the Minister for Magical Other’s motion?”

Hands went up. Lots of hands. More than Rose expected.

_Oh my God, she thought._

*****  
Outside the chamber, the ejected Teddy Lupin could hear nothing but noise. It was like the place had erupted.

Suddenly, the door opened and people emerged. Some were sobbing, others shaking their heads. The emotion was thick. What the hell had happened?

Finally, an exhausted looking Rose emerged.

“Rose, what the hell happened in there?”

Rose just looked at him for a second. She could barely manage to say the words.

“We won. We won by five”

****  
They said nothing for a few minutes. What was there to say? Their life’s work had just been completed on the first vote. All magical creatures were now free and had equal rights. They had done the impossible.

There was only one thing Teddy could think to say.

“Rose. I should have done this a long time ago, but…. Will you marry me?”

#### Summer June 21st 2045

The stand stood alone on the stage. 

It was simple. Made of wood most likely, covered over with a light green cloth that draped around it to reveal the Ministry of Magic symbol. Atop the stand was a microphone connected to a series of speakers on the stage. What no one could see from the audience area in front, was that behind the stand was a set of steps that could be wheeled in so its intended speaker could reach the microphone. 

The crowd in front the stage was huge, already in the thousands and getting bigger. The event was about to start.

It was a lovely, warm summer’s day. Rose Lupin was happily married and about to retire from the Ministry of Magic at the age of 39. But first, one of the most beautiful days of her life was to come. 

Today Rose had a front row seat to witness the inauguration of the first new Minister of Magic in over three decades. Her mother was officially retired. An election had been fought, and the new Minister was about to be introduced to the crowd, make their maiden speech and officially take over the leadership of all magical communities.

An Elf.  
The new Minister of Magic was an Elf.

If the monumental day when the _Act for the Emancipation and Equality of Magical Others_ (the EEMO for short) had been passed was a day in history, this day was something else; it was the culmination of her and her mother’s life’s work.

The passing of the act had seen incredible changes in the wizarding world. Within three days, the Ministry had launched charms that completely disbanded all magic of servitude; the ancient bonds tying Elves to their masters was over.  
Rose and Hermione knew this wouldn’t be enough of course. They quickly passed laws enforcing wages for all Elf workers and lifting restrictions on Magical Others working for the Ministry of Magic. Five years on there were just five magical others (2 Elves, 2 Centaurs and one Goblin) working for the Ministry, but that would soon change. 

Hogwarts had started accepting Magical Others into the school, but with freedom came understanding; Elf and Goblin magic was actually quite different to Wizards (it was in some ways much more powerful, with no need for wands) and these groups often wanted their own schools for these reasons. An Elf and Goblin extension was being built on the grounds of Hogwarts so that young wizards and witches could learn to live with magical others even if they had different lessons. Now you could see young Elf Gryffindors and Goblin Slytherins walking around the grounds.

Rose looked to her right, where her husband, Teddy Lupin was smiling in anticipation of the event. This had been his fight as long as it had been hers. He had gone to Azkaban for this fight, had worked harder and done more than almost anyone; he deserved to have his place in its history assured. Rose knew that the History of this fight would be kind to Teddy because she intended to write it now she was retiring. Their daughter Nymphadora, now three, was sitting impatiently on a chair in front of her. Now this fight was finished, it might be time to see about a brother or sister for her.

To her right sat her mother and father. She was so happy for them. The wayward daughter had turned out all right after all. But Rose knew it wasn’t that. Her parents wouldn’t have minded if she had gone off the tracks. What they cared about was that she was doing what was right. Had she lost her way, back in her early 20’s? Yes, she and Teddy both had. But they had found their way back again. Peace and persistence had paid off. And now Hermione, at the age of 66 was about to see the culmination of lifetime’s work; the final act in a cause she had first taken up when she was 15.

Rose could still recall with a tingle in her spine the words her mother had said, publically, just a few months ago; broadcast across the land on the radio and in the Daily Prophet. Even the Muggle Prime Minister had been stunned:

_“Dear Magical friends. I have been your Minister of Magic for more years than I care to remember. We have shared a time of peace and reconciliation. But nothing is forever. It is time for change._

_I shall not seek, nor shall I accept your nomination for another term as Minister of Magic._

_Instead, I would urge anyone who would wish to vote for me to instead put their votes and support behind my friend and colleague, Winky._

_It is time, friends, to embrace our entire Magical Community and come together. You have all voted for and accepted change. Now is the time to see that change through.”_

The effect had been momentous. Not because Hermione was retiring; people had predicted that for the past couple of elections. But everyone, everyone, had assumed that Rose would be running herself. Why not? After Hermione’s success, they could create a real Weasley dynasty. Her father certainly thought so. 

“No dad. I’m not running. In fact, I’m going to leave the Ministry and retire from politics”

“You WHAT?? You have just brought about the biggest change in magical law since… since… whenever! And you are retiring? You’re only 39!”

But Hermione had understood. It wasn’t about creating a dynasty. They didn’t want power for the sake of it. What was power without a cause? Power for the sake of it is always a bad thing. Rose didn’t want it. Her mother didn’t want it for her. Rose had achieved what she wanted; now it was time to move on, to find a new cause to fight, new injustices to erase. 

She couldn’t do that as Minister of Magic. She couldn’t do it even as a member of the Ministry. She needed time away; to see the world, teach Nymphadora the lessons she had learned about right and wrong, and to find out what she needed to do next. 

She needed a rest before the next fight.

Further up the row, she could see that Harry Potter and his family were there. Harry just for a brief second caught her eye, and that brief look said everything. 

_He knew. All that time ago, he knew we would make this happen if I stayed out of prison._

Harry and Ginny were also long retired. They now lived in Hogsmead and both taught at Hogwarts; Ginny teaching Quiddich and Harry teaching (of course) DADA. Rose had overheard Harry talking to Hermione; about how casting his vote for Winky was one of the proudest moments of his life.

And here was Winky. It was impossible to tell how old Elves were, as they did not age like humans. Winky was an Elf with great character and a compelling story. She had originally been a slave to a senior Minister back in the 1990’s. She had been freed as a ‘punishment’ and started working in the kitchens of Hogwarts. 

Sudden freedom with no support had sent her off the rails into alcoholism, but over the last 40 years she had put her life back together. As one of the few free Elves around she had played a pivotal role on the Elf side of campaigning for the EEMO. 

She had been the first Elf ever to work for the Ministry of Magic 5 years ago and had done a great job. Rose was proud. There really was no one better to have run for Minister than Winky. She was brave, noble and her experiences allowed her to understand other’s points of view so well.

Everyone rose to their feet and applauded as Winky, the first ever Elf Minister of Magic climbed the steps to the stand. The noise from the crowd was so deafening she could not even begin.

Teddy squeezed Rose’s hand. Her mother was squeezing her other one. Rose looked at her and saw that Hermione was openly weeping with happiness. 

Just along the row, it looked like Harry Potter was talking to someone in front of him. But they were on the front row. _Who is he talking to?_

Then Rose saw.

In front of Harry was an Elf. Weirdly translucent, as if he was not even there. Only Harry seemed to be reacting to him. The Elf was weeping with happiness as well while talking with Harry.  
Rose knew who that was. She recognised him from his picture. How could she not? 

The inauguration would not have been the same without this one, extra attendee. He had to be here, even though he had died, bravely, so many decades ago.

The Elf was Dobby.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my first story!


End file.
